Litton Entertainment is the company that met with FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly on kidvid rules last week (see 1805030032).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau granted a waiver and application from the city of North Miami Beach for a new Travelers Information Station (TIS), said an order Thursday. North Miami Beach needed a waiver of agency separation rules due to the geography of the area where the station is to be located and a lack of alternative frequencies, the order said. The bureau said the waiver wouldn’t cause interference problems because the new station’s signal will reach too close to existing stations’ only over water, the order said. “The separation of 19 kilometers to the contour’s closest point on land gives us confidence that the TIS station will not result in actual harmful interference,” the order said. The TIS station will serve the public interest by enhancing emergency communications, the order said.

Broadcast-only households are on the rise and millions of Americans don’t have access to broadband, said Litton Entertainment CEO Dave Morgan in a meeting with Commissioner Mike O’Rielly on the FCC's kidvid rules, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 17-105. Litten’s programming “highly over-indexes with underserved audiences” and is more likely to be viewed over-the-air then by other means, the filing said.

The FCC reporting rule change for broadcasters that don’t collect income from ancillary services took effect with Thursday publication in the Federal Register. Stations that don’t collect such income don’t have to submit those forms.

Sky will beam coverage of the May 19 royal wedding live in 4K, a “world first for any royal event,” reported the broadcaster Wednesday. Sky will position 51 4K cameras around St. George's Chapel, the grounds of Windsor Castle and around Windsor town center for the daylong event, it said.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York confirmed Cumulus Media’s reorganization plan, Cumulus said in a news release Wednesday. Cumulus “expects to emerge from Chapter 11 before the end of the quarter,” the release said. “Upon completion of the restructuring process, the Company’s debt will have been reduced by more than $1 billion, and Cumulus will have greater financial flexibility with which to support its ongoing business transformation,” the release said. The restructuring of Cumulus is expected to benefit the entire radio industry, analysts said. (see 1711300059).

Day Two of ATSC’s Next-Gen TV Conference will mark 25 years to the day of the formation of HDTV’s Grand Alliance that became the basis of the current A/53 ATSC 1.0 DTV broadcast system, said an ATSC agenda item. Details of the commemoration weren’t disclosed. The alliance, formed officially on May 24, 1993, settled on an approach that allowed both progressive and interlaced scanning, but encouraged a rapid transition to all-progressive, according to coverage by our predecessor newsletter Television Digest With Consumer Electronics and by Communications Daily. According to the Digest, the alliance included the partnership of General Instrument and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which advocated both progressive and interlaced systems; the Advanced TV Research Consortium of NBC, Philips, Sarnoff Labs, Thomson and Compression Labs (interlaced only); and the team of Zenith and AT&T (progressive only). The alliance had its critics, said the Digest. Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, blasted the alliance as a “terrible mistake” because it would isolate the U.S. from global standards-setting on DTV. Attempts to reach Negroponte for comment on whether he stands by his criticisms 25 years later were unsuccessful.

The FCC Media Bureau approved a request from a Mexican-owned company to be allowed to buy the licensee of two FM stations, said an order Tuesday. The order grants a request for a foreign ownership declaratory ruling to allow Delaware-based limited liability company SMG -- owned by two Mexican investors -- to be allowed to increase its stake in broadcaster Grupo Multimedia from 25 percent to 100 percent, and grants the transfer application. Grupo is the licensee KQMX Lost Hills, California, and KRPH Morristown, Arizona. The foreign ownership request was given the nod by DOJ, DOD and the Department of Homeland Security and the application and petition were unopposed, the order said.

Puerto Rico broadcasters affected by 2017 hurricanes with mutually exclusive FM translator applications from Auction 100 can request a waiver to move to any available non–reserved band channel, the FCC Media and Wireless bureaus said in a public notice Tuesday. Permitting MX applicants in Puerto Rico to resolve their mutual exclusivities by allowing them to move to any available non-reserved band channel -- rather than waiting for a new auction filing window -- will expedite construction of new broadcast facilities, the PN said. Applicants must still comply with all other requirements for technical amendments and file by the June 14 close of the settlement window, the PN said. The Puerto Rico Broadcasters Association made the request (see 1804050047 and 1804060027).

The broadcast TV industry's 12- to 18-month outlook “remains stable,” Moody's emailed investors Monday. “Companies will continue to face serious headwinds as declining viewership drives down advertising revenue and consequently hinders earnings growth.” Ad revenue will continue to experience negative growth, analyst Jason Cuomo said. "Broadcasters' earnings are heavily influenced by the health of the advertising market, given their revenue mix is still weighted toward ad revenues, but today this ad-supported business model is under attack." Viewership of the top-four news channels is declining, and broadcasters are losing market share to Google and Facebook, Moody’s said. The ad market problems are being balanced by retransmission consent rates, “up by approximately 23% in 2017, much higher than previously anticipated,” Moody’s said. “Cyclical events, including the Olympics and mid-term Congressional elections, will provide an additional lift for broadcasters in 2018.”